How To: 5 Tips to Recruit New Dental Patients

You may be great at providing excellent patient care, but do prospective patients know that? Here are five tips to recruit new patients to your dental practice.

Use your dental team as a marketing resource

In order to jumpstart any new marketing strategy, one thing is key: Get your team on board. Staff members are a huge part of internal marketing, from the way they greet patients at the front desk to what they say to them while they’re in the chair. Make sure the message they’re sending patients is consistent and up to your standards. Pleased patients will take that message to friends, family or their social media networks. Remember, there’s nothing worse for public relations than a patient complaining about your dental practice to their Facebook friends or posting a negative review on Yelp. Prospective patients in their newsfeed will likely steer clear of you.

Click here to read how and why you need to get your team members involved in marketing.

Build a social media presence

If you have a website, that’s a great start, but you need more. The web isn’t just about throwing information out to a group of people; it’s about engagement. There’s no easier way to engage with current and prospective patients than social media. Outlets such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter can help you gain momentum and exposure in your area.

When venturing into this arena, there’s one thing to remember about engagement: Strike the right balance. You shouldn’t be afraid to divulge personal information, such as hobbies, relevant discussions with colleagues and friends or something fun from the office. Show your personality! But, balance this openness with useful information about your practice, helpful dental tips and overall appropriate customer service.

Check out this video series to learn how to empower your practice with social media.

For good measure, click here to read DPR’s “5 worst social media mistakes small businesses make.”

Say ‘Thank You’

Don’t underestimate the power of kindness and respect. When you express kindness, it creates large ripples for success in the future. Thank your staff for a job well done; thank patients who give you referrals and new patients who choose your practice. Patients, employees and suppliers notice these tiny gestures. And a happy employee creates a happy practice. By noticing a job well done, you build staff loyalty and increase productivity, leading to greater patient satisfaction.

Develop a practice newsletter

There are many benefits to creating a practice newsletter or e-newsletter, but one of the major boons is communication. In addition to social media, it’s another way to stay in touch with current patients, control your message, make personal connections and establish your practice’s expertise. In addition to patients who sign-up, e-newsletters are often read by bloggers in the industry, media and more. This provides much-needed exposure when recruiting new patients. And by staying in touch with current patients in a personal way, their patient loyalty will pay off in referrals. Plus, e-newsletters increase website and social media traffic. More traffic means more talk about your practice and areas of expertise.

Click here for more reasons why newsletters will bring you business.

Learn from your patients

It’s always good to get feedback, and no feedback is as important as your patients’. A way to get honest feedback about your dental practice is to send out surveys to current clients asking them to identify areas of improvement they believe would enhance their time at your office. By taking these opinions to heart and working to improve on suggested areas, you increase the chances of retaining current clients. It also makes them more likely to refer your practice to others. If you’re worried about getting honest answers, make sure to allow clients the choice of filling out the survey anonymously so they feel more comfortable.